2041 Sanctuary (Dark Descent) (29 page)

They each sat in contemplative silence before Sarah spoke again. ‘Short of trying to blast our way out of here, and as difficult as this option sounds, I fear it might be our only choice if we ever want to see the surface again.’

‘Where it goes might not be an issue,’ Trish said. ‘If we could power one up we could send a locator beacon through it and then track where it came out.’

‘Didn’t you say the composition of Sanctuary prevents signals passing through its walls?’ Jason asked Sarah.

‘Yeah, in places, but I’m pretty sure that’s only communication and data transfer. The SED use small beacons to act as critical waypoints for teams out in the field. They act as a sort of internal navigation system for Sanctuary Proper; it’s not great, but it does the job. I think if we could get our hands on one it may work. How did you think of that?’ she asked Trish.

‘Something I read in the museum, probably,’ Trish said, pleased with her contribution.

Jason examined the photo again. ‘So how do we find where this place is – exactly?’

‘If it was found by a survey team,’ Sarah said, ‘then there will be a map to it, with associated waypoints.’

‘Wouldn’t that mean we’d have to take an air-shuttle to get there?’ Trish asked in concern.

Jason’s face lit up. ‘Hell, yeah, I gotta try one of those babies out, they sound awesome!’

‘We’d have to steal one,’ Sarah said, thinking hard, ‘and I can get my hands on the Deep Reach maps.’

Trish looked sceptical. ‘Stealing an air-shuttle sounds ambitious.’

‘The whole bloody plan is ambitious,’ Sarah said, ‘we just need to break it down into parts and solve it step by step. It’s definitely doable, I’m sure of it.’

Trish chuckled. ‘I’m glad you are.’

‘What if we sent a beacon—’ Jason said, leaning back in his chair as their empty plates were collected from the table and their main courses put down in their place. ‘—located it near the surface,’ he continued, when the waiters had departed, ‘went there and found we were trapped inside a sealed cave?’

Sarah thought for a moment. ‘Explosives.’

‘What if it was a really small cave?’ Jason said.

Sarah looked at him in annoyance.

‘Hey, just trying to be prepared,’ he told her, holding his hands up, ‘it could happen.’

‘Shaped charges, then. The SED will have them – somewhere.’

‘So say we get all that done,’ Trish said, ‘we still need the pendant.’

‘We need to find out where that bastard Collins stashed all our gear.’ Jason’s expression turned innocent as he looked to Sarah. ‘Perhaps your boyfriend will know?’

‘He’s not my sodding boyfriend.’

‘Methinks she protests too much,’ Jason said to Trish, who smiled as Sarah sent a rude gesture Jason’s way.

His grin broadened. ‘Charming.’

‘He might be able to help,’ Trish said to Sarah, ‘if you surreptitiously pump him for information.’

Jason sniggered. ‘I think he’d prefer to be pumped more overtly.’

Trish laughed and then covered her mouth, looking shocked at herself as Sarah gave her a stern look.

Sadly, Trish and Jason were probably right, as much as it pained her to admit it as the two amused themselves at her expense; Riley would be a good person to ask where their possessions were being stored. He might even be able to help her get them back, if she was really lucky.

Sarah looked back at Jason, who now acted out a romantic encounter between herself and Riley with two vegetables; apparently she was a carrot and he a stick of celery.

‘Oh, Riley, you’re so strong and manly,’ Jason said in a hideous attempt at a female voice, wiggling the carrot in one hand.

‘Of course I am,’ Jason answered himself in a deep voice, revelling in his role while Trish failed to keep a grin from her face, ‘I am prime beefcake sent from the stars to save you.’

Sarah watched, her eyebrow raised and her face aloof. ‘Keep that up,’ she said to Jason as his charade went on, ‘and you’ll find those vegetables shoved up somewhere the sun definitely don’t shine.’

Jason looked at Sarah and nonchalantly put down his puppets. ‘You’re going to get me back for this, aren’t you?’

Sarah smiled at him sweetly. ‘You’ll have to wait and see.’

Her answer added a hint of worry to Jason’s semi-remorseful expression.

Trish sipped her wine. ‘So then, all we need to do is get some explosives and a locator beacon, find and retrieve the pendant—’

‘Steal some Deep Reach maps,’ Jason continued, ‘and an air-shuttle—’

‘Locate the ancient transport device,’ Sarah said, ‘and pray to God it works and takes us to the surface.’

Trish laughed uneasily. ‘Simple.’

‘Sounds easy if you say it quick,’ Jason said with a wry smile.

Sarah took a long draught from her own wine glass and then held it up in the air. ‘To the plan then.’

Jason and Trish raised their glasses to hers. ‘The plan,’ they all said in unison, the chinking of their glasses sealing their respective fates.

Chapter Sixteen

The corridors inside Sanctuary’s Exploration Division, the SED, echoed with the sounds of the hurly-burly of yet another day in the life of the clandestine facility. Along one such passageway, full of people buzzing from place to place, this way and that, strode Sarah Morgan, dressed in her red and blue uniform. It wasn’t lost on her that the majority of their audacious escape plan, hatched and expanded upon over the previous days, was down to her to action. Of course Jason had been quick to point out – when Sarah had raised the issue – that if he and Trish had been in the SED, the burden could have been shared. Unfortunately Sarah had been unable to dispute this fact, but it was a moot point; getting her friends in was beyond her control. She had to concentrate on what was in her control and that included today’s objectives; source a waypoint beacon, explosives and an air-shuttle user handbook. All three items would be difficult to acquire, but not impossible; or so she hoped.

Moving through the building, Sarah noticed an inordinate amount of military activity going on. Small units of armed and unarmed soldiers marched among the usual civilian ranks of the SED. Something was going on, and whatever it was it wasn’t going to make her acquisitions any easier. Her hand strayed to her wrist where the tracking bracelet had been attached as she passed by a small squad of military engineers. A simmering urgency to getting the plan underway as soon as possible had been eating away at Sarah ever since they’d decided on their course of action. Surely it was only a matter of time until someone realised she’d shed the device, and when that time came any future plan of escape went out the window with it.

When yet another squad of camo-clad men and women stomped by, the metal grate flooring resounding to their combined footsteps, Sarah wondered if whatever was going on here might have actually helped distract the military when she’d dropped off the grid. If that was the case then it might not be long until usual service resumed and her secret came to light; she increased her pace, her footfalls increasing in volume, the noise echoing her internal need for speed.

Entering an office dedicated to Deep Reach personnel, Sarah spied Riley in the distance chatting to the SED Commander, Dresden Locke. Darting to her right, behind a partition, she took a seat at a computer terminal next to a man she didn’t recognise from another team. Flashing him a quick smile in acknowledgment, she got down to work. Attaching a control circlet to a finger, she navigated through the system, attempting to locate the route to the temple Jason had found. After some searching she located the required maps and downloaded them onto her computer phone, before moving on to the equipment database. Typing the word
explosives
in the search box she hit the Return key and scanned the results as they appeared on screen. Five departments had entries, more than she was expecting; perhaps her luck was in. By the time she’d exhausted four of the five, this initial thought had disappeared. The last remaining department to search, the Excavation Team, however, reignited her optimism. Listed halfway down its inventory was just what she was after, shaped charges. And even better, some of the devices, according to the description, were designed to punch holes through obstructing walls and rock. Noting down on her computer phone the storeroom location within the building, she took off the interface circlet from her hand and stood up, just in time to come face-to-face with Riley.

‘Long time, no see,’ he said, his expression difficult to read. ‘I thought I saw you scurry in down here.’

‘Err, yeah.’ Sarah felt trapped and uncomfortable under his gaze. ‘Look, Riley, I have to go. Speak to you later?’

‘Sure, how about some lunch?’

‘Tomorrow?’ she said, backing away from him.

‘Okay, great.’

She flashed him a smile as she walked out of the office, nearly colliding with someone on their way in.

‘I’ll hold you to that!’ His voice called out after her.

Winding her way down into the lower levels towards the storeroom, Sarah’s thoughts had become distracted following her encounter with Riley. She’d missed his company after she’d withdrawn from him during the Deep Reach mission outside of the base. Despite the critical nature of her current situation, her mind lingered on his handsome features, his muscular arms and his sensual lips—

‘Watch out!’ a man shouted.

Sarah ducked as a razor sharp cutting disc sliced through the air above her.

Another workman pointed to the flashing warning signs Sarah had just skirted around. ‘Are you fucking blind?!’

‘Sorry!’ she said, continuing through and then out of the cordoned off maintenance zone.

‘You will be when you get your damn head chopped off!’ the workman yelled.

Bloody hell, get a grip Sarah
, she told herself.
You’re acting like some doe eyed teenager, get your head in the game!

A few minutes later, she’d scanned her card into the appropriate locked room and ran her eyes over an inventory list on a small wallscreen inside. Trish and Jason had agreed two charges should be enough to cope with anything they might run into, if and when they managed to get to the surface.

Selecting the appropriate metal case, she extracted it from its snug position on the shelf and shifted it onto a workbench, its dense weight producing a resounding thud as it dropped onto the surface.
Careful, these are explosives
, she cautioned herself.
More haste, less speed; if I’m not careful, I’ll end up plastered all over the walls like tomato sodding soup
. Unhooking the chrome clasps, she flicked up the catches to reveal four black, circular objects, each the size of a small plate. Rather than being flat, each had an identical concave depression; this was the characteristic – or shape – that would focus the energy released by the explosive itself. Sarah reached out a hand to one of the devices, its smooth surface felt cold to the touch. Gripping its metal edges, she carefully extracted it from its soft foam surround; it was heavier than she’d expected.

The lid of the case held four transportation containers, fabricated out of smart nano materials, which – according to the information sheet provided – also acted as wireless detonators. Placing the charge in its smaller home, she snapped together its lock and then repeated the process with a second unit. Closing the case, she placed it back on the shelf, but behind two others; should someone find two charges were missing, it hopefully wouldn’t be for a long time.

Cradling the weighty objects in the crook of her left arm, she opened the door to the room with her right. Retreating back out into the corridor, her jutting elbow caught someone passing by, sending one of the circular cases dropping to the floor with a clatter. The offending person happened to be an armoured Special Forces commando who turned, bent down and retrieved the explosive for her.

He handed the small canister back to Sarah. ‘Ma’am, you might want to be more careful where you’re walking. This ordnance could take out a whole floor.’

‘Noted; thank you, Lieutenant,’ she said, catching sight of his name tag which identified his rank, a nervous apologetic smile working its way onto her face.

The soldier gave her a stern nod and continued on his way. Sarah’s smile fell from her face after he’d departed, the expression changing to a fearful grimace. Looking down at the two charges, she swallowed, trying to introduce some saliva into her mouth, which had gone quite dry during the incident. Blowing herself sky high was most definitely not part of the plan. Her mother had always joked that Sarah had inherited her clumsiness from her; Sarah had never felt she was particularly cack-handed, but she had to admit, even to herself, that she did have a tendency to bang into things on occasion, perhaps more than most. It wasn’t a trait she relished, especially when carrying around munitions.

‘Okay,’ she said to herself, ‘one down – two to go.’

The explosives had proved far easier to obtain than she could have hoped and she was soon depositing them in a sturdy rucksack pilfered from the Alpha Six kit room, alongside some Deep Reach uniforms she’d nabbed for Trish and Jason. The waypoint beacon, strangely, took far more effort to source than the explosives. The only place to get them was from the mapping teams, who religiously documented everything that went in and out of their manned supply station. Sarah had to fill out paperwork and make up a cock and bull story as to why she needed three beacons, deciding one would seem suspicious and the extra two might, in fact, prove beneficial when they were outside the USSB.

As she loaded the three cylindrical objects into the bag, a familiar voice spoke from behind her. ‘Morgan, a word if I may?’

Sarah froze and then turned round to look into the face of Commander Locke, behind him Cora hovered like a vulture, waiting for its prey to be incapacitated.

‘Sir?’ Sarah said, glancing at Cora and wondering if she’d been rumbled.

Locke stared at her with penetrating eyes. ‘Riley tells me you’ve performed well in the field and that you’ve been an asset to the team.’

‘But?’ Sarah said, fearing the inevitable.